After the Fire
by inactive-94305943
Summary: Ace is Immortal, along with his younger brother. After centuries concealed in the shadows, Ace emerges to discover the underground world of immortals who rule New York City. He digs deeper, searching for more about their kind, yearning to find out more about why he of all people was chosen. The last thing he expects to find is the disembodied soul of his dead brother. AU.


**hey!**

 **okay new fic. but fyi, i won't be updating this until i finish another big fic, like brilliant or au. till then, expect nothing from this baby, kay?**

 **anyway let me know what you think of this little pilot!**

* * *

 **after the fire  
chapter 1 - the new world**

* * *

 _"Really?" Sabo asks gently. "Is this really what you're going to do, Ace? I thought you were better than this."_

 _"Damn right it's what I'm going to do. I mean, what would you do in this situation?" Ace steadies the packet of matches in his hands, taking a deep breath, steeling himself. His brother sighs and leans back against the wall beside him._

 _"I know I can't do anything to stop you," Sabo says quietly. "And I know you think that I'm not real... But Ace, there are people in there. Innocent people, and they've never done anything to you. Please, just give it a second thought?"_

 _Ace growls. "You know damn well that I'm doing this for Luffy, Sabo, isn't that enough for you?"_

 _"Do you really think this'll actually help him?!" Sabo snorts. "Even if your wild plan succeeds, it's not like playing assassin will work out. Do you really think the money they pay you will be enough to last you and Luffy more than just a couple of days?!"_

 _Sighing, Ace shoots his sibling a glare. "It's the only hope we've got!"_

 _"You could go back to hunting!"_

 _"There's nothing left out there to hunt, is there?!"_

 _The blonde throws his hands up in frustration. "You can try! At least try a little harder before just giving up and deciding to be some mindless thug instead-"_

 _"You think I want to do this?" Ace curls in on itself slightly, and it has nothing to do with the night's chill. "You've seen how thin Luffy is. Ever since you... ever since it happened... we've been struggling. And now that the hunting isn't working out, arson is the one thing that nobody else is willing to do - the only other thing is bodysnatching, and when you were here you made me promise not to do that, so that much is out of the question."_

 _Sabo falls silent, wishing for the hundredth time for the ability to reach out and comfort his friend. His brother, who still believes that Sabo's a hallucination. It's been like this for a long time, since the incident. Nobody else sees Sabo - not Luffy, not his parents, not anybody else in the city. Just Ace. And Sabo has no idea why - but at the same time he detests it because apparently (in Ace's mind) the only reasonable explanation for his brother's reappearance is some kind of hallucination. Ace doesn't think he's real._

 _And it breaks Sabo's heart. Especially when the idiot is planning to do stuff like this - stuff that will only break him further, make him hate the world more. Take away more of what makes him Ace. Tonight, Ace is being paid to burn down the home of a noble with over a hundred people inside. Though he won't admit it, Sabo can tell that he's scared. Scared of killing people. Scared, maybe, of what it'll do to him._

" _Don't do it, Ace," Sabo pleads quietly. "Go home. Go back to Luffy. He's scared that one of these days you ain't gonna come back. I'm scared. Can't you see me?!"_

" _You're not real," Ace whispers. "You're not real."_

" _I am!" Sabo tries to grab Ace's arm but his fingers go right through, as if they aren't even real. "Ace, you can see me! You can_ _ **hear**_ _me! I'm right in front of you, just_ _ **please**_ _-"_

" _YOU'RE NOT REAL!"_

 _Anger bursts through Ace like a hurricane and he fumbles with the matches, shaking fingers rushing to strike one. Sabo steps back with eyes full of hurt and then there's fire, bursting to life across the rooftop and across Sabo's skin. The blonde screams through his teeth because this pain feels very, very real, and Ace watches with horror as fire tears across Sabo's face._

 _Then the blond is gone, leaving no trace that he was there in the first place, and Ace is left alone on the roof. The fire burns on._

* * *

Ace has had a very, very interesting life. Or maybe interesting isn't the word for it.

Victorian London is an ugly place to be. God knows. Beneath the splendour and the monarchs and the nobles, it's a dump filled with people who own nothing, ruled by people who own everything. Ace had his brothers growing up and nothing else, not a penny to his name, not an inch of land. It was a long time ago. Ace's memories of early childhood are cold and grey and generally horrible and he doesn't like to recall them a lot.

His most vivid memory, of course, is Sabo's death. He's never forgotten it. An explosion in the mines and then Luffy's tears, and the funeral procession carried out by people who probably had better things to be doing. Ace remembers, clearly, being angry at everything. The world. The country. Himself. He remembers things getting worse – he remembers empty stomachs and sallow cheeks and wishing for some kind of hope, some kind of salvation. Something better.

(He remembers seeing Sabo's ghost, too, right up until the first fire. But that's something he _really_ doesn't like remembering.)

Everything after the first fire is a blur. Ace remembers seeing himself in the mirror and being surprised that he looks like a teenager now, not a child. He remembers slitting the throat of noble and feeling his knife hit bone, and hating the hot feeling of blood splattering onto his skin. He remembers seeing Luffy get smaller and dirtier and angrier, and remembers worry, and anger, and grief and too many bad things to decipher.

He remembers being twenty, and he remembers dying.

It wasn't a grand death, not by any means. Nothing is, really. Death is never something pretty, or beautiful, or honourable. Death is just _death,_ and it's always sucked and it's always going to. Ace was working in the mill and being crushed by machines _sucks_ _ **.**_ Feeling your bones grinding against one another as you die is… not pleasant. But it happened. It happens to everybody.

The one thing Ace never expected was to wake back up.

An immortal. It seems far too…interesting for him. Too grand. Too fortunate for a kid like Ace, but he takes it without complaining because it means that he gets to live on for a little longer and take care of Luffy for a little longer and _keep surviving_ for a little longer, and that's what your mind is geared to when you grow up like he did.

And the years go by. Things are still hard but Ace now has something solid, a secure knowledge that he _isn't going to die_. So he pushes his body harder, takes more and more risks. He dies over and over and over and the scars stay but the gambles pay off so he doesn't mind it too much. When Luffy dies too, and wakes up too, and finds out that he's immortal too, Ace isn't surprised. If _he_ deserves eternal life, god knows Luffy does too.

( _Surely Sabo did, too_ , the back of Ace's mind whispers. But years move on and the turn of the century comes and goes - the world is changing. And he gradually stops thinking about Sabo at all.)

Luffy and Ace move onwards, taking no breaks, never giving up. The world gets older still and they stay very young – seventeen and fourteen, and tiny in the grand scheme of things. Ace meets the first other immortal he's ever known on the front lines of the Great War. Zoro is solitary and socially reclusive, but they get along. The man has been immortal since he was sacrificed by his pagan tribe, thousands of years before Ace was even born. He's even more scarred than Ace, but he looks even younger, and there's something lonely about him. They become friends.

They stay in touch after the war but Zoro is used to being alone and they can't stay together, not really. There are too many bad memories there and Ace has spent his very, very, very long life trying to get away from bad memories. So they part ways and Ace goes back to Luffy, and they move to Scotland and stay there for a while.

The 20th century is both amazing and utterly detestable. Who knew that a thing called _modern_ _culture_ existed? Nobody – at least, not until people started multiplying in the 20s and 30s and 40s and suddenly there was a thing called civil rights, and there are people _everywhere_ and it's hard to keep up. This thing called culture changes a million times every day and language, and people do too, and practically everything that can change does.

Luffy, of course, loves it. He begs Ace to leave with him when he travels to the New World – though people call it America nowadays, as they have been for centuries – but Ace refuses. Maybe someday he will but for now, he's going to stay right where he is. Something inside of him feels bitter about leaving Sabo's memory forever. So Luffy leaves for a new life and Ace is alone, in every way imaginable, living a solitary life in northern Scotland.

On long, drunken nights, he thinks about Sabo sometimes. He can barely remember what the kid looked like. He wonders if Sabo could have survived, somehow. If the strange ghost he saw back then could have been some kind of immortal. The thoughts don't last long.

At least, they don't until now.

* * *

All this 'visa' nonsense is stupid, in Ace's opinion. People shouldn't be banned from getting into a country just because they weren't born there, or they're not rich, or they did something bad one time. But with a lot of forgery and a lot of free time, he manages to get the paperwork he needs to get to the New World- no, _America_. It's been almost ten years since he last saw his kid brother and he's just about had enough of being alone, with only memories and Bad Feelings to keep him company.

The aeroplane is noisy and cramped and decidedly unnatural, in Ace's opinion. He's glad to get off of it. The New York city skyline is less grand when you're right in the centre of the city itself, and everything is hot and grimy and the sunlight is so intense that it's irritating. Ace grabs his case from the conveyor and lets himself be swept through the crowd and into the arrivals hall.

He's _here_.

America. In the poor underbelly of Victorian London, people still called it the New World, as if it had only just been discovered. It's always been something far, far away for Ace. A land too distant for him to reach. When Luffy left to go to the New World, it felt almost has if he had died – as if he was too far away for Ace to comprehend his existence. His letters were barely enough, and they're not enough anymore. Ace is desperate to see him.

And _there he is_. In the crowds clustered outside of the arrivals gate, Luffy's tanned skin stands out to Ace immediately – his messy hair is like a neon sign. He would recognise that sunny grin anywhere. Ace breaks into a jog, suitcase rattling over the cracks in the tiles, and then starts running – past the other arrivals, past the glass doors, past the barrier and right into his brother.

Luffy has put on weight – he's still a little skinny but his arms are strong and toned around Ace's waist, and he's laughing, his whole body shaking with it, holding onto him so hard that it's almost as though he's afraid that he's going to disappear. Ace doesn't hold back, letting the handle of his suitcase go in favour of spinning the kid around and around and they don't let go of one another for a while. Nearby, a man with a sunburnt face grumbles at them to tone it down in front of children. Ace doesn't bother to try to figure out what that means.

"Ace!"

Luffy pulls away, feet hitting solid ground, and he beams up at Ace with a smile that could make flowers grow. He's stockier than before, scruffier, more tanned. His hair is a little overgrown and there are threadbare bracelets hanging onto both of his wrists, and his t-shirt is such an obnoxiously bright neon yellow that it hurts Ace's eyes.

"You're here! You're actually _here_ , holy shit, I missed you!"

"It's been a while," Ace smiles, tucking his hands into his pockets. The man is still glaring and Ace ignores him. "How are you, kid?"

"Good, I'm good!" Luffy's grin fades a little and suddenly they're hugging again, and his head is buried in the front of Ace's sweatshirt. "I really missed you. Traffy is boring and grumpy and he doesn't like talking much. He always leaves every time I try to talk to him. All he does is _work_ , it's so _stupid_."

"I missed you two, you big idiot." Ace pulls back and flips off the glaring man, and then picks up his suitcase and puts an arm around Luffy and walks away to the sound of blustering anger behind him. "It's been boring without ya'."

Luffy laughs. "Your accent got stronger."

"Arse."

"It's true!"

"Yeah, well, if I sound Scottish than you sound American. You've changed a lot, twerp."

Wrinkling his nose, Luffy asks, "Did I? Didn't notice."

"And who's that Traffy you mentioned?" They go through the revolving doors and into the sunlight, and Ace squints, taking in his first impressions of the New World. Bright lights and a vague impression of moving cars. "You found somebody to stay with?"

"Yeah! Traffy's an immortal, just like us! But he's always busy, it _sucks_. He's a scientist. Works with souls and stuff."

"Souls?"

"Apparently they exist. Cool, right?"

"I...guess." Ace clears his throat, letting Luffy lead him up the busy pavement, weaving through crowds of commuters. "So, why did you call me here?"

"I'll tell you in a minute!" Luffy darts off across the road the second the traffic light flashes red and Ace hurries after him, bumping into people as he goes, still dragging his suitcase.

The next hour or so goes quickly, in a blur. They take the subway uptown and Luffy grabs Ace's hand and hauls him off the train, through the station and up into the sunlight as they reach their stop. They walk for a little while longer, hurrying too much to maintain a flow of conversation, and eventually, they reach a small door sandwiched between two shopfronts along a busy street. Luffy glances left and right, with the air of somebody who's had to do this many times before, before reaching into his shirt and pulling out a key hanging from a chain around his neck. Ace watches, intrigued, as Luffy jingles the key in the lock, unlocks the door and ushers him inside before locking it behind them.

Ace finds himself standing in a long corridor. It's dark, the walls and floor cool, unvarnished concrete, and the whole place smells like rust. Luffy darts up the corridor and Ace follows him, and they go up a flight of metal stairs and to a door. At the top, Luffy turns to him and says, casually, "Traffy doesn't like strangers, but he's nice when you get to know him so don't take it to heart if he's there, okay?"

"Uh, okay…?"

Luffy doesn't wait any longer before swinging open the door. Inside, it's surprisingly light and airy - it's a kitchen merged with some kind of sitting room, and one wall is one huge window, looking out onto the street and letting sunlight shine in. The furniture is mostly worn down but homely, and the walls, though unpainted, are garnished with the strangest things that Ace knows must be Luffy's fault; bits of tinsel and posters for bands he's never heard of, and the covers of magazines that he must have found cool. It's obvious that even after living for this long, Luffy has no talent when it comes to interior design.

In stark contrast to the walls, the kitchen area is well organised and clean, and Ace can see a loaf of bread wrapped up on top of the breadbin. The surfaces are well cleaned and light streams into the room, reflecting off of the small kitchen table. The place fells altogether homely. It occurs to Ace that they must be used to living together now, after so long. It's been years.

"This is your place?"

"Yeah! My room's through there, and Traffy's lab is up the stairs again. We gotta be quiet most of the time because being here is _kinda-sorta_ illegal, but nothing's happened yet, so we're good!"

Ace sighs, not even bothering to question it. "Alright. Now, you gotta explain."

"Explain what?"

"Why you brought me here? You know I didn't want to leave."

"Well, Traffy used to be a psychologist - but he says the olden days psychologists were crazy so he stopped - but he says that you being on your own isn't good, and I've gotta call you and get you here with us!"

"Really?"

Luffy whistles. "Well, maybe not the last part… but he said it's not good! And I worry about you."

"Uh-huh," Ace says, disbelieving. "And what else?"

"Oh, yeah! The IBIE is having a meeting on Friday!"

Ace blinks. "...What?"

"The IBIE!"

"Elaborate?"

"You haven't heard of it?!" Luffy asks, incredulous. Ace shakes his head. "Wow! You're a loser."

"Oi!"

"The IBIE is-" Luffy wrinkles his nose, concentrating- "It's the International Board of Immortal Entities. I think. If I said it right. Anyway, it's a group that does all the technical stuff for us!"

"Uh, 'technical stuff'? Like what?"

"We all meet up once every ten years. It's really fun to meet different people! And they keep a register of us all and they make sure we know the rules and all that."

"And if I don't want to be on some register?"

Luffy rolls his eyes. "S'not like it means anything. It's just a register. And you get to meet really cool people!"

"But-"

"Trust me," Luffy speaks over him, flopping back onto one of the couches. "It's gonna be great."

Ace doesn't really have a choice but to believe him.

* * *

Trafalgar Law is irritable and, in Ace's opinion, close to unbearable, in both personality and actions alike. But he and Luffy are obviously close, so Ace manages to keep from complaining as much as he would like to. He watches, sullen, as the duo make dinner together, arguing about bread and then making up when Luffy slices his finger and Law puts a plaster on the wound with surprising tenderness. Law barely acknowledges that Ace is there, aside from a few sullen looks and short answers to his questions, and after they eat, Law takes off to his lab. Ace can't help but wonder if all immortals are as private as people like Zoro and Law.

"I'm going out, too," Luffy tells him. "Got business to do. You'll be fine here, right?"

"Uh, I guess. But… what are you going out to do?"

Luffy shoots a furtive glance around, as though checking to make sure that nobody is listening to them, and then he leans close and whispers, "I can't tell you."

"What? Why?"

"Because it's a secret, that's why. Anyway, I'm off! See you in the morning!"

"Wait, stop, you gotta explain-"

"No, I don't." Luffy slips under Ace's arm and bounds towards the door, grinning. "Don't bother Traffy, don't break too many things, don't make too much noise-" The smile slips off his face abruptly. "And don't go into the room beside mine, okay?"

"I-"

"Anyway, bye!"

Before Ace can protest anymore, Luffy has danced out of the door and slammed it behind him, leaving Ace standing alone in the main room, hand outstretched. Ace listens as footsteps thunder down the stone steps, across the corridor, and then the door at the end of the corridor opens and closes and there's silence. Upstairs, Trafalgar isn't moving around. Ace feels suddenly, inexplicably alone.

With a sigh, Ace turns away from the door and sits on the couch, sliding down to lie on it after a few moments. He stares up at the ceiling for a while. Luffy evidently isn't living the safest of lives, if he's heading out into the city in the dead of night to engage in business that he won't even tell Ace about. Or maybe Ace is just paranoid. He hasn't seen Luffy in a long time but evidently, his protective instinct hasn't exactly faded. Exhaling heavily, he roles over and attempts to go to sleep, but sleep doesn't come easily. Not by a long shot.

When Ace finally does manage to drop off, his dreams are blurred and grey, indistinct but unpleasant, filled with the strange, horrible feeling that tastes faintly of regret. Or guilt. Or maybe both. He wakes up in a cold sweat, with a fever creeping beneath his skin, in the darkness of the main room. It's silent, but it feels as though something - or somebody - woke him.

Ace has the distinct feeling of being watched.

Slowly, he stands up. The light is off in Luffy's room - either he's not back yet, or he's already gone to sleep. For some reason, Ace doubts the latter. Outside of the large window, the lights of the city chase the darkness out to the horizon, stretching in all horizons, and Ace can feel the pale blue light shining on his face as he stands there, watching the city. It still feels as though he's being watched. A thrill runs through him like electricity.

Something creaks behind him.

Ace whirls around, turning away from the window, flinching hard. On instinct, he raises his fists and slips naturally into a fighting stance, squinting into the darkness, trying to make out a figure. His heart is pounding very hard. He feels slightly dizzy, nauseous, as though somebody has hit him hard in the back of the head. The dark room is empty.

Down the corridor, in the direction of Luffy's room, there's a sound. A door creaking.

Ace turns silently, balanced on the balls of his feet, hardly daring to breathe. He can feel blood thrumming through his veins. He walks slowly, silently, towards Luffy's bedroom door. The corridor feels impossibly long. Nothing moves. There's nobody there. Ace reaches the door and glances to the side - there's a bathroom to the left of the bedroom, and to the right-

There's another creak. The door to the room beside Luffy's opens an infinitesimal amount.

Ace stumbles backwards. Luffy's warning rings in his head; _don't go into the room beside mine._ There's somebody - or something - inside of that room, moving around, and Ace stares into the tiny crack where the door is slightly opened. It's too dark inside to see anything. Somebody could be pressed up against the door, staring Ace right in the eye, and he wouldn't be able to see them. Ace is paralysed, rooted to the spot.

A hand lands on his shoulder, and somebody whispers, very close to his ear, " _I'm_ _ **here**_."

Ace whirls around, jumping, petrified. He swings blindly for a second, instincts taking over, but his fist connects with a wall and his knuckles explode with pain. There's nothing there. There's nobody there. Ace curses, nursing his stinging knuckles, looking around frantically to try to find whoever touched him. There's nothing here. Nobody's in the corridor but him.

The door creaks again. Ace freezes up, looking back towards it, and then suddenly it slams shut, the latch snapping into place. Either somebody closed it from the inside, or…

Ace shakes his head. Whatever it was - whoever it was - is in there, locked in the strange room, and probably won't come out. Maybe it was Trafalgar, the weirdo, or Luffy, pulling a prank. It's nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. He shouldn't be worried. He has no reason to be worried.

When Ace finally manages to get himself to back away from the door and return to the couch, however, sleep doesn't come for hours. The city is loud and it creates a comforting background noise, above the white noise of Ace's own confused mind. He can't seem to make himself close his eyes without having to open them only a few seconds later, sure that there'll be _something_ standing there, in front of him, from the room. He can still feel the hand on his shoulder, can still hear the voice in his ear.

Occasionally, he swears he can hear something moving just beyond the strange door.

* * *

 **anyway yeah let me know what you think!**

 **-lee**


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